1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Method, Process or System for filter technology in the area of filtration of radioactive substances, such that improvements can be provided in obtaining substantial or total amounts of Class A waste as opposed to the formation of Class B and Class C waste forms.
2. Background Information
It has been found that the current filter technology utilizes bag, cartridge and other membrane type filters with regard to filtration of radioactive waste substances. This has not been found to be appropriate for higher activity or radioactive waste substances because they can often generate waste forms having greater than Class A categorization. Also, these conventional filters have often been found to have the tendency to concentrate the waste being assimilated, which has resulted in the generation of Class B, Class C and greater than Class C (GTCC) waste. All greater than Class A waste forms are found to be both difficult and expensive to dispose of in comparison to Class A radioactive waste. These high activity waste forms can also have significant dose characteristics and require special shipping equipment that is difficult to schedule and expensive to lease. Class B and C waste must also be stabilized before burial and require a special burial facility. At present only a few utilities have access to a burial site that will accept Class B and C waste in the United States. Also, the cost of burial of Class B and C waste has been found to be approximately at least one (1) order of magnitude higher than burial costs associated with Class A waste forms. GTCC waste has no disposal facility available for it at the time that this application is being initially filed.
Class A, B and C wastes are characterized in the industry or technology by using standards defined as to analysis of analytical results which are set forth in U.S. Regulations, 10 C.F.R. 61. Under this approach, each isotope has a limit for Class A, B and C wastes that is stated in either mCi/ml or mCi/g depending upon the type of isotope. This is the limit for each isotope to stay within the classification. When more than one isotope is present, a sum of fractions approach is utilized to determine the classification. This means that each isotope concentration is divided by the classification limit that provides a fraction. If the fraction is less than 1 that isotope is within the limits of the class but must be added to the fractions of the other isotopes to determine if the mixture remains in the classification (Class A, B, C or GTCC). If the sum of the fractions is greater than 1 then the same procedure must be repeated for the next higher classification until a sum of <1 is reached or the mixture is classified as GTCC (greater than Class C).